Processing of pellet-shaped articles (e.g., tablets, caplets, lentil-shaped articles, etc), such as marking the articles with indicia, coloring the articles, laser drilling holes in the articles, coating the articles, and/or inspecting the articles is known in the art. The articles may be transported past one or more processing stations (e.g., printing, inspection, drilling, etc.) by carrier bars provided with one or more article receiving pockets.
In a typical application, the carrier bars are transported along a conveyer. The articles are fed into the pockets on the carrier bar from a hopper. Empty pockets are brought past the hopper for receiving the articles and the pockets are gravity-fed with the articles. The further processing of the articles in the pockets requires that the articles be oriented uniformly and held in position in the pockets during processing. To accomplish this uniform orientation and stable positioning, fairly close tolerances between the articles and the interior of the pockets must be maintained. However, it is these same tolerances that cause difficulty in loading or filling the individual pockets with the individual articles.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved method and apparatus for transporting articles that do not suffer from the above-mentioned drawbacks.